MARY’S HEROIC YES
Exactly
nine months before Christmas Day (depicting the nine months of
conception) is the Solemnity of the Annunciation, which we celebrate
today. This beautiful feast, honoring in a special way the recipient of
that annunciation: none other than the Blessed Virgin Mary. To her is
due our honor and veneration, for her “heroic” acceptance and consent to
the will of God, to be the Mother of Jesus.
“Heroic” is the word we used. Her decisive fiat (“Let it be done unto me
according to Your Word”) was a far cry from an ordinary compliance to
an order. Those suspenseful moments — in the course of the conversation
between Angel Gabriel and Mother Mary, when the world as though awaited
her final answer — must have been filled with the struggle of
discernment. In the end, Mary’s faith and commitment, as well as her
total resignation and complete abandonment to God’s will, prevailed.
Bestselling novelist Paolo Coelho captured this quiet struggle on the
part of Mary to accept God’s Will. In his haunting novel, By the River
Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, there is a passage whereby those momentous
words of Mary, “Thy will be done,” are given their full implication
through a litany-like enumeration of the future episodes of pain and
tribulation. All these were what Mary still had to face and go through
in her life with her Son Jesus. But her constant refrain, “Thy will be
done,” was to regularly recur and replenish her with reserved sources of
strength and steadfastness.
In other words, it was a yes which led to more yesses — a
fundamental option which broke ground for more consistently aligned
options in the present and future.
We can’t be any less wishy-washy in our commitments and choices. Sure,
we have our own struggles. But let’s allow Mary to always be our
strength and guide. Fr. Martin Macasaet, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTION: What role does Mother Mary play in your life?
Dear God, thank You for giving us Mother Mary to be our guide and protector in this valley of tears.
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